Field
Various communication systems may benefit from power efficiency. For example, certain communication systems associated with the long term evolution (LTE) of the third generation partnership project (3GPP) may benefit from methods and devices for providing power efficient support of small packet transmission.
Description of the Related Art
Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication technologies are rapidly gaining attention from the telecommunication industry and have recently been deployed in smart grid, home networking, health care, and vehicular networking environments. One of the six horizontal topics studied in Mobile and wireless communications Enablers for the Twenty-twenty Information Society (METIS) is massive machine communications (MMC). M2M is recognized as an important part of the future 5G systems.
Considering the major use case of M2M, one of the clear characteristic aspects is small packet transmission in a very infrequent manner. Power consumption is an element for consideration when designing solutions for M2M communication.
Currently in 3GPP, there is ongoing work on the machine-type communication (MTC). So far the work in 3GPP has mainly focused on the MTC enhancements for Rel-12. However, 3GPP systems are not designed for MTC operation with small packet transmission.